Fianna Fáil propose new crime unit to tackle gangs and drug dealing
: Speaking on the campaign trail in Sligo, Enda Kenny blamed Fianna Fáil for taking resources from Gardaí.
The Taoiseach said: "The Fianna Fáil Party in particular should admit that it was a grossly irresponsible mistake to close down Templemore as a unit that trains the Gardaí.
"I'd remind them that their pre-submission budget in October said we should have 500 Gardaí coming out of Templemore. The Government are putting a 600 maximum capacity, and we'll continue that."
: A new organised crime unit to tackle gangs and drug dealing and criminal profiteering has been proposed by Fianna Fáil as they accused the Government of acting "softly" on fighting crime.
The party launched its proposals to fight crime in Dublin today as the fall out continues over recent gang attacks and shootings in the capital in recent days.
Justice spokesman Niall Collins accused the Fine Gael-led government of acting “softly” in fighting crime and said yesterday’s announcement of a new armed unit for Dublin was just a "repackaging" of previous announcements.
Fianna Fáil also said that it would provide resources to boost the numbers of gardai in the force to 15,000 and double the numbers in the garda reserve to 2,500.
Mr Collins said a new organised crime unit would take on not just drug dealers, but criminal profiteering and would have specialist gardai to tackle gangs and crime in general.
The party’s proposal comes after Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald this week announced a new armed unit for the capital, funded with €5m, in the wake of fatal shootings in recent days.
Mr Collins also accused the Government of dragging their feet in recruiting new members to the force.
While conceding that the Templemore garda training college had been closed under the last Fianna Fáil government, he questioned why the outgoing coalition had only starting recruiting new gardai after four and half years in government.
